Premier League Matchday 27 review: Arsenal continue to run riot

Wednesday 6 March 2024 by Jonathan Victoria  Features

Matchday 27 was another weekend with little surprises, although a few results weren’t won until late making for exciting viewing.

No changes at the top or bottom look set to bring a brilliant conclusion for the title fight but little contest for the survival scrap.

Take a look at our Premier League Matchday 27 review, looking at the good, the bad and the ugly from the weekend, plus the biggest winners and star players.

The Good

Credit: Foden and Haaland turn Manchester BLUE!  | Man City 3-1 Man Utd | Premier League Highlights (Sky Sports Premier League, Youtube)

The Manchester Derby was rather entertaining, and despite losing the contest, there were some positives Manchester United could take away from the result, mainly that they defended very well to take a 1-0 lead into half-time.

Manchester City were strong in the second half, though. While it took some magic to get the goals, they finally did to earn a confident win and keep the pressure on Liverpool at the top.

Tottenham and Aston Villa both left it late to take home the three points. Spurs certainly would’ve benefitted from Villa dropping points, with the London side still holding a game in hand, but for now, they’ll have to wait.

West Ham made it two consecutive victories with two injury time strikes to beat Everton. A point each would’ve been the fairer result but unfortunately for the Toffees, football doesn’t always play fair.

Newcastle kept the pressure on them, though, with a 3-0 win over Wolves. Their mixed results in the last few weeks won’t help any efforts to bring European football next season but a result like that definitely will.

Fulham made light work of Brighton, with their convincing 3-0 win giving them seven clean sheets in the league this season, putting them level with Man United.

The Bad

Credit: Wissa scores STUNNING bicycle kick! | Brentford 2-2 Chelsea | Premier League Highlights (Sky Sports Premier League, Youtube)

They may have won, but it took Liverpool a mistake from the referee Paul Tierney and nine minutes of added time to get the win over Nottingham Forest.

Poor shooting let them down throughout the game, with only one shot on target from 22 attempts. Really not good enough for a team aiming to win the title, although was more of an outlier result.

Chelsea were Chelsea once again, failing to beat or even look decent against lowly Brentford, although at least managed to avoid a loss. They basically live in this category, maybe it should be renamed ‘The Chelsea’...

The Ugly

Credit: Nunez sends Reds FOUR clear with 99th minute winner! Nott'm Forest 0-1 Liverpool | EPL Highlights (Sky Sports Premier League, Youtube)

It’s been a while since a moan about the referees but a big result-altering error was made once again this weekend, with the league leaders seeing the benefits.

Late on in the game, while Nottingham Forest had possession, Paul Tierney stopped play due to a head injury, which is perfectly fine to do. What isn’t fine is that when play resumed, he gave the ball to Liverpool for them to play from, and soon after they got the winning goal.

The rules clearly state that if a team is in possession when play is stopped, they earn possession back when play resumes. It’s a widely known rule and has been for some time now, so how or why Tierney made this mistake is baffling.

Forest has a clear case to make for appealing, although what the outcome could be is unknown. It’s highly unlikely Liverpool would have the result taken from them, even though that may feel like the just outcome for Forest to gain a point, especially since they will be fighting the relegation battle come the end of the year.

Biggest Winners

Credit: Arsenal move two points off leaders Liverpool | Sheffield Utd 0-6 Arsenal | EPL Highlights (Sky Sports Premier League, Youtube)

No surprise on the biggest winners this week. Arsenal not only got the biggest win but looked brilliant during the game, scoring five in the first half.

The second half only yielded one goal but it didn’t dampen the impressive nature of their performance.

The Gunners are scoring with ease lately, with 19 goals scored in their last five games. They don't look like slowing down and are ready to pounce if Liverpool and/or Man City slip up.

Star Players

Phil Foden

It took some magic for Man City to find their way past United in the second half, and that’s exactly what Foden is at the best of times.

Ollie Watkins

The Villa star bagged another brace this weekend, taking his season tally up to 16, ahead of Mo Salah and two behind Golden Boot leader Erling Haaland.